Between Earth and Heaven: Liminality and the Ascension of Christ in Anglo-Saxon Literature PDF
Preview Between Earth and Heaven: Liminality and the Ascension of Christ in Anglo-Saxon Literature
Between earth and heaven examines the teaching of the Manchester theology of Christ’s Ascension in Anglo-Saxon literature, Medieval B making it the only comprehensive study of how patristic Ascension theology was transmitted, adapted and literature e taught in Anglo-Saxon England. This book offers a new and culture t understanding of the methods of religious instruction w and the uses of religious texts in Anglo-Saxon England, capturing their lived significance to contemporary e audiences, a frequently elusive aspect of early medieval e literary culture. n Between earth and heaven argues that Anglo-Saxon authors recognize the Ascension and its theology as e fundamentally liminal in nature, as principally concerned a with crossing boundaries and inhabiting dual states and places. In teaching the Ascension, authors convert abstract r theology into concrete images reflecting this liminality, t h such as the gates of heaven and Christ’s footprints. Informed in its approach by the anthropological concept of ‘liminality’ and interested in the interactions between a conventional theology and religious practice, this study n reveals the complex relationships between patristic d theology, ‘official’ clerical teaching, spatial rituals, liturgical practices, lay popular beliefs and the doctrinal messages of the Ascension. By examining a range of h Between liminal imagery in Anglo-Saxon literature, Between earth e and heaven demonstrates the sophistication and unity of a Ascension theology in such diverse sources as Latin and Old English homilies, religious poetry, liturgy and popular v earth and religious practices. This study refines our evaluation of e Anglo-Saxon authors’ knowledge of patristic literature n and theology, their rigorous and innovative maintenance of traditional Christian-Latin teachings, and the process heaven of source adaptation. This book will be of interest to scholars and students of medieval religious literature and culture and of the k patristic tradition in Anglo-Saxon England. r a Liminality and the m Johanna Kramer is Assistant Professor of English at the University e of Missouri r Ascension of Christ in ISBN 978-0-7190-8789-9 Anglo-Saxon literature Front cover— The Ascension from the Tiberius Psalter © The British Library Board, MS Cotton, Tiberius C. VI, fol. 15r www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk 9 780719087899 johanna kramer KRAMJ000.indd 1 07/03/2014 12:13 sanctity and pornography BETWEEN EARTH iAnN mD eHdEiAevVaElN culture Macintosh HD:Users:maddoxmac3:Desktop:Madhavan:New Files:50 KRAMER_9780719087899:KRAMER 9780719087899 PRINT SFoeruinesd iendgit soerrsi:e As nedkiet oBrse rnj.a ju. aanndd eDrasvoidn ,M gaatitlh eawshston This series is broad in scope and receptive to innovation, bringing together a variety of Series founded by: J. J. Anderson and Gail Ashton approaches. It is intended to include monographs, collections of commissioned essays, and editions and/or translations of texts, with a focus on English and English-related Advisory board: Ruth Evans, Nicola McDonald, Andrew James Johnston, Larry Scanlon literature and culture. It embraces medieval writings of many different kinds (imaginative, and Stephanie Trigg historical, political, scientific, religious) as well as post-medieval treatments of medieval material. An important aim of the series is that contributions to it should be written in a The Manchester Medieval Literature and Culture series publishes new research, style which is accessible to a wide range of readers. informed by current critical methodologies, on the literary cultures of medieval Britain (including Anglo-Norman, Anglo-Latin and Celtic writings), including post-medieval already published engagements with and representations of the Middle Ages (medievalism). ‘Literature’ iLsa nvgieuwaegde ainn da i mbraogainda atinodn iinn cthlues Givaew saeinns-peo, eemmsb racing imaginative, historical, political, sJ.c Ji.e Antnifidce,r sdorna matic and religious writings. The series offers monographs and essay collections, as well as editions and translations of texts. Water and fire: The myth of the Flood in Anglo-Saxon England Daniel Anlezark Titles Available in the Series The Parlement of Foulys (by Geoffrey Chaucer) D. S. Brewer (ed.) Language and imagination in the Gawain-poems JG. rJe. eAnnedrye:r Esoconc ritical readings of late medieval English literature Gillian Rudd Water and fire: The myth of the Flood in Anglo-Saxon England Daniel Anlezark Rethinking the South English legendaries Heather Blurton and Jocelyn Wogan-Browne (eds) The Parlement of Foulys (by Geoffrey Chaucer) D. S. Brewer (ed.) In strange countries: Middle English literature and its afterlife: Essays in Memory of J. J. Anderson David Matthews (ed.) A Knight’s Legacy: Mandeville and Mandevillian Lore in early modern England Ladan Niayesh (ed.) Greenery: Ecocritical readings of late medieval English literature Gillian Rudd Between earth and heaven Liminality and the Ascension of Christ in Anglo-Saxon literature JOHANNA KRAMER Manchester University Press manchester and new york distributed in the United States exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan Macintosh HD:Users:maddoxmac3:Desktop:Madhavan:New Files:50 KRAMER_9780719087899:KRAMER 9780719087899 PRINT Copyright © Johanna Kramer 2014 The right of Johanna Kramer to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Published by Manchester University Press Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9NR, UK and Room 400, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk Distributed the United States exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA Distributed in Canada exclusively by UBC Press, University of British Columbia, 2029 West Mall, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z2 British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data applied for ISBN 978 0 7190 8789 9 hardback First published 2014 The publisher has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for any external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. Typeset in 10/12 Imprint MT by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire For Marc, Linus, and Conrad ælc man ðe wisdom lufað byð gesælig Macintosh HD:Users:maddoxmac3:Desktop:Madhavan:New Files:50 KRAMER_9780719087899:KRAMER 9780719087899 PRINT Contents List of figures viii Acknowledgements ix Abbreviations xii Introduction 1 1 Biblical sources, patristic authorities, and the development of Ascension theology 29 2 God’s footprints: material symbolism in the Old English Martyrology and Blickling Homily 11 72 3 Gateway to salvation: Ascension theology in liminal spaces 107 4 Walking towards heaven: boundary rituals, community, and Ascension theology in homilies for Rogationtide 147 5 The liminal Christ in Anglo-Saxon art 201 Afterword 219 Bibliography 223 Index 245 Macintosh HD:Users:maddoxmac3:Desktop:Madhavan:New Files:50 KRAMER_9780719087899:KRAMER 9780719087899 PRINT Figures Figures can be found between pages 202–3 1 Tiberius Psalter, London, British Library, Cotton, MS Tiberius C. VI, fol. 15r (© The British Library Board). 2 Æthelstan Psalter, London, British Library, Cotton, MS Galba A. XVIII, fol. 120v (© The British Library Board). 3 Benedictional of St Æthelwold, London, British Library, MS Additional 49598, fol. 64v (© The British Library Board). 4 Missal of Robert of Jumièges, Rouen, Bibliothèque Municipale, MS Y.6 [274], fol. 81v (Collections de la Bibliothèque municipale de Rouen). 5 Cotton or Caligula Troper, London, British Library, Cotton, MS Caligula A. XIV, fol. 18r (© The British Library Board). 6 Bury St Edmunds Psalter, Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica, MS Reg. lat. 12, fol. 73v (by permission of Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, with all rights reserved). 7 Odbert Gospels of St-Bertin, New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, MS M.333, fol. 85r (The Pierpont Morgan Library, New York. MS M.333, fol. 85r. Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan (1837–1913) in 1907. Photography by Graham S. Haber, 2012). 8 Bernward Gospels of Hildesheim, ‘Kostbares Evangeliar’, Hildesheim, Dom- und Diözesanmuseum, Domschatz 18, fol. 175v (Foto Marburg/ Dom-Museum Hildesheim /Art Resource, NY).
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